At 20 requests/user/day (totaling 3,000,000 queries/mo), running Content generation on DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $16,505.28 / month ($3.301 / user / mo).
Total expected API invoice for 5,000 Active Users generating 3,000,000 queries.
Direct inference cost per MAU to model your SaaS pricing tiers and gross margins.
Savings generated by exploiting 30% cache hits on prompt context.
| Model | Provider | Monthly Spend (5,000 Active Users) | Cost / User / Mo | Annual Spend | Context Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Pro (Current) | deepseek | $16,505.28 | $3.301 | $198,063.36 | 1,000,000 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | openai | $46,704.00 | $9.341 | $560,448.00 | 1,050,000 |
| GPT-5.4 Workhorse | openai | $58,380.00 | $11.676 | $700,560.00 | 256,000 |
| o3-mini | openai | $18,084.00 | $3.617 | $217,008.00 | 200,000 |
| o4-mini | openai | $17,886.00 | $3.577 | $214,632.00 | 256,000 |
| o1-mini | openai | $18,084.00 | $3.617 | $217,008.00 | 128,000 |
At 20 queries per user/day with DeepSeek V4 Pro, the estimated cost is $3.301 per monthly active user (MAU). Total monthly bill for 5,000 Active Users is $16,505.28.
Assuming a 30% cache hit rate on repeated system and context tokens, prompt caching saves $918.72 per month ($11,024.64/year) on DeepSeek V4 Pro.
With a direct COGS of $3.301 per user/month on DeepSeek V4 Pro, charging at least $16.505 per user/month ensures an 80%+ software gross margin.